Nourish: Grapefruit cucumber basil cooler

Beat the searing summer heat with this easy and refreshing recipe:

Grapefruit Cucumber Basil Heat Blaster
Serves 1.

Juice 1/2 grapefruit.
Add to tall glass of cold water.
Drop in a few cucumber slices.
Smash in some fresh basil leaves.
Toss in some ice.

Enjoy!

Train: Brain training for runners-week 6

Sometimes, especially on summer holidays, you just have to take it easy and soak life's blessings and its energy in. The main draw of this week's training: being able to continue my running in the Northwoods of Wisconsin -- deer flies be damned -- and jumping into Pine Lake for sweet relief afterward.

Even with all the chillin', training was solid and strong. Yay!

Nature: Metaphoric sky blue + pink

"There is a great sense of freedom in soaring through the sky. You get a different perspective up there, seeing things that aren't so apparent from the ground." - Sonny Perdue, pilot

Image © Ilona Meagher | Boone County, IL - July 2011.

Share: Independence Day 2011

Image © Ilona Meagher | Fireworks over Rusk County, WI - July 4, 2011

Train: Brain training for runners-week 5

As an intro to this week's workout log, here's a quote from Brain Training for Runners on embracing training pain:

Fatigue-related pain is the subconscious brain's way of trying to convince the brain's conscious decision-making center to voluntarily slow the pace of running or stop entirely. The conscious mind has some leeway to reject this message and keep the proverbial pedal to the metal. But the only way your conscious mind can really reject pain's message ("Slow down!") is to accept the pain itself, because more pain is the inevitable price paid for not slowing down. All available evidence suggests that "mentally tough" runners accept race pain -- to the point of even welcoming and embracing it -- more than other runners, and that this acceptance enables them to run harder.

Of course, the pain he's talking about is the 'I can't go on...I need to slow down...pushing so hard hurts' type -- not the injury type. I worked on copping this attitude this week, with some good results.